The Fintech Payments Market is Surging. Do Providers Have the Talent to Keep Up?

If there is any one area of everyday life that has been fundamentally altered by fintech, it is payments. After all, there are reasons that most members of Gen Z have never written a check in their lives, while some parents are still asking for a pen at the grocery store checkout. Meanwhile, total transaction value in digital payments is on track to reach $11.5 trillion by the end of 2024 and is growing at a rate of more than 9% annually.

Given this scale, and the rapid pace of its evolution, it is critical that leadership in fintech, technology managed services, and beyond stay ahead of the trends and maintain a full understanding of what is changing and what it means for the market at large. As we are seeing in the Buy-Now-Pay-Later market, conditions can change very quickly in software and SaaS, pushing companies in fintech payments to focus not on what is happening today, but what is possible in the years ahead.

Naturally, each of these and related trends can have broad impacts on the market for executive talent in their prospective industries. As payments companies prepare for their next phase of growth, it is crucial to have the right executives in place who can adapt to new industry trends and potential unchartered territory in their company’s history.

The Growth of Real-Time Payments

For instance, real-time payments (RTP) – which utilize a payment processing network to send money electronically between banks – are expanding both in the U.S. and globally, and are on track to reach $511 billion per year by 2027. RTP provider The Clearing House has already reported record-setting activity through the first quarter of 2024, during which it processed a record 76 million transactions in the U.S.

Unlike traditional payments processing, which can take hours to complete, RTP payments are processed almost instantaneously, immediately transferring funds between banks any time of day or night. For businesses, this can help with cash flow management by eliminating the need to wait for bank processing, while increasing efficiency and internal productivity. Customers enjoy the convenience of making instant payments for digital products and services, and gig economy workers appreciate the instant payouts the technology enables once they finish their shifts.

However, this new flexibility brings with it a host of potential risks – from mishandled funds, to data leakages, to unauthorized access. The implementation of real-time payments calls for leaders who are experienced in high-speed transaction processing and real-time data analytics, as well as the potential security implications that come with these technologies. Currently, this is fueling an increased demand for upgraded executives like Chief Technology Officers (CTOs) and Chief Operating Officers (COOs) who have requisite experiences and can oversee the integration of RTP solutions. Attracting and retaining executives with these necessary skills is a different matter, often requiring recruitment across industries where technical payments expertise is more common and highlighting opportunities for impact and growth within the company as incentives.

Increasing Focus on Payments Security

Although the risks associated with digital transactions received widespread attention in May 2024, when hackers stole user information associated with more than 500 million Ticketmaster users, that breach represented only a small fraction of the payments-related incidents that occur globally each year. In 2023 alone, there were more than 3,200 reported data compromises in the U.S. impacting 353 million people.

Given our increasingly digital world, payment security has never been more important, driving the growth of a market that was valued at $23 billion in 2023 and set to grow at 15% per year through the next decade. This is supporting the development of new technologies and advancements in data encryption, tokenization, and biometric authentication.

As with RTP, however, the rise of these sophisticated security threats is increasingly calling for leaders who possess deep knowledge and expertise in highly specialized areas such as cybersecurity, risk management, and regulatory compliance. This underscores the importance of the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), Chief Information Officer (CIO), and other senior Information Systems leaders in protecting payment data as well as its supporting infrastructure (and is just one of the evolving responsibilities of today’s CISO). For digital payments companies, attracting and retaining leaders who can navigate the complex landscape of data security calls for an emphasis on the company’s commitment to innovation and robust security protocols, putting plans into action to protect user data.

Artificial Intelligence Reaches Payments

As in many other industries, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are revolutionizing nearly every aspect of payment processes, from fraud detection & prevention, to customer relationship management, integrated predictive analytics, credit risk management, and more. In banking broadly, Accenture is predicting up to 30% in potential productivity improvements in the next three years related to generative AI, with the technology disrupting as much as 73% of the time currently spent on tasks by U.S. bank employees.

The challenge for those in the payments space is in the fact that just about everyone, across industries, is looking for AI talent right now in order to gain their own first-moved advantages. As some of my colleagues recently shared, the race for AI expertise is already becoming increasingly competitive for professional services companies, and executives with strong backgrounds in AI / ML technologies and data analytics are becoming increasingly valuable in the marketplace. Companies across industries need visionary leaders who can leverage AI to enhance efficiency, security, and customer experience in payment systems.

Those companies that want to stand out in this already-tight talent market should be making themselves as appealing as possible to candidates who have their choice of opportunities – fostering a culture of innovation, providing access to cutting-edge technology, and ensuring opportunities for research and development as baseline measures. It is also worth looking internally and utilizing the talent you already have in place, providing them with the tools and opportunities to develop the AI skills that will help them grow and support your organization. Thankfully, candidates for these roles are not impossible to find – we have already mapped 300+ AI leaders in this space – but creativity is required to find and build relationships with the ones optimal in a given situation.

A New Landscape for Payments Talent

Regardless of the technologies involved, the market for fintech payments is evolving rapidly. P2P payments reached $2.7 trillion in 2023 and are projected to surge by over 50% annually. With this growth have come new challenges. For instance, P2P payments apps such as Zelle have become a popular way for U.S. bank customers to send money between accounts. But, U.S. banks have suffered $370 million in losses in Zelle-related fraud – bringing the future of these free-to-the-consumer services into question.

Whatever happens across the payments landscape, executive leadership will play a critical role in driving innovation and supporting growth. This calls for a commitment to security, the vision to embrace the most useful aspects of digital payments, and the operational skills to manage broad-based technology integrations. The companies that manage this best will be those that proactively invest in talent in order to stay ahead of the competition in today’s continuously evolving fintech landscape.